I've been looking around the forum and everything and am looking for a good acrylic. I am currently not very good at acrylic, but am fast enough that an odorless is too slow drying. I have heard very promising things about Young Nails. I have EZ Flow, but find it to be very picky about who it wants to stay on. I also have an akzentz acrylic, that from what I am told isn't sold outside of the lower main-land, and my mentor does ONLY gel. She is going to give me some Nail Harmony acrylic to try...but I am very interested in Young Nails product as I hear it is very good with little to no lifting....

Help??

PS if anyone had tips on how to do nice smile lines with acrylic, I would love the help. I watch some "fingernail Fixer" videos which helped a lot, but I'm still not very good...Thanks!!

I use NSI Attraction acrylic system and find it stays really well, on the few clients I did get some lifting with (plus myself) I found it was my prep and since I bought a curette and since then all my lifting problems have vanished, so I know it was this and not the acrylic products.

If you are used to using a certain brand of acrylic, then instead of changing brands why don't you look into buying some Linkage.
It is the best product for helping lifting clients and it will work with any gel and acrylic brand.

But if you really want to change brands, I highly recommend NSI Attraction as it's forgiving with it's ratio but not to the point where you can be sloppy with it and it is so smooth and lovely to apply and remove.
Plus the Technailcolors you can get are awesome

You will get a bunch of answers on this. Everyone has their favorite. I tried YN, Omega, CND, EZ Flow, and several others. An educator told me once that they used EZ Flow powders with CND Retention, so I tried that and used that for several years, because it worked best for me. I have also tried Republic Nails and have no lifting . Also Tammy Taylor- no lifting and beautiful results. You should find a product you are comfortable with and practice, practice, practice until you master it. There are many great products out there.

Ive tried them all through the years and they each have their own qualities I like and disliked. I will alway be a CND Radical girl on most people, but on myself and my really bad lifters I use TT xtra adhesion, TT powder, 99% alcohol to cleanse and a couple coats of TT primer and my nails stay on fine. I wanted to make YN work, but just had too much lifting on my non lifters. I still love YN clear and protein primer though. What works for some may not work for others, your just have to try try try everything to see what works for you.

Get some samples or small sizes (sample are not enough to really get a good feel for the product) and play with the product.
I like YN Speed powders, recently Ihave tried Harmony, very nice too.
I think I had better results with YN, but maybe because I know it better and I "figured it out"
I don't use L&P much. I use it mostly for quick repairs of the natural nails (toenails too). I don't apply acrylic on the whole nail- I use it as a "patch" to fix a crack or a missing corner. Much quicker (and stronger) then gel

BornToBling :
> I've been looking around the forum and everything and am looking for a good
> acrylic. I am currently not very good at acrylic, but am fast enough that an
> odorless is too slow drying. I have heard very promising things about Young
> Nails. I have EZ Flow, but find it to be very picky about who it wants to stay
> on. I also have an akzentz acrylic, that from what I am told isn't sold outside
> of the lower main-land, and my mentor does ONLY gel. She is going to give me
> some Nail Harmony acrylic to try...but I am very interested in Young Nails
> product as I hear it is very good with little to no lifting....
>
> Help??
>
> PS if anyone had tips on how to do nice smile lines with acrylic, I would love
> the help. I watch some "fingernail Fixer" videos which helped a lot, but I'm
> still not very good...Thanks!!

I'm certainly no expert since I'm relatively new, but I've been researching which acrylic is "best" for my needs. I use OPI's Absolute mostly, as well as CND. I've also used INM's decorative powders and have had no issues. I can get these locally, but I'm sure they aren't the cheapest!

As far as Young Nails (since I see you are from Van), you can indeed get samples from them, but keep in mind that you will pay shipping, plus duty... kinda makes the whole idea of "free samples" annoying. They sent me the trial of gel and speed acrylic and I wound up paying almost $40 with duty and shipping. I did like the acrylic though and it stayed in my client very well!! No complaints about the way it performed!

Just research who you order from. Ordering south of the border is a bit of a pain unless you have a US postal box.

There is this P.O. Box thing at the border out here that you can ship things to then go pick up on the other side. It's called "ship happens" in Sumas. You get the package addressed to you, but addressed to them, bring your ID and pick it up. Which is cool! Just incase you wanted to come to the main land do you don't have to pay rediculous shipping or duty.

Thanks for the heads up about the duty and shipping! How would I contact YN about sending me samples?

give YN a call - their number is on their website... sadly, the 1-800 number doesn't work from this region, so you'll have to call long distance.
I do believe they have a supplier in the BC interior, you can locate that from the website too.
I will check out that place for shipping, I think there is one in Blaine as well which would be much closer!

I believe Nailbasics sells YN acrylics. I bought mne at the show. You are right, shipping from US can be VERY expensive. Flammable items have to be shipped properly by Fed Ex or UPS- then customs and duties apply. That adds up.
I would call Nailbasics and order from them

Odorless is just annoying...and it takes forever to dry, lifts like crazy, etc. Here in the states we really only use odorless for boards, and after that we throw it away. Most high quality acrylics are pretty low odor anyway and you can always get different dishes to reduce the odor as well.
I totally agree with you about EZ flow...I love the colors and I use it all the time on tips, but I won't let it near the pink of the nail anymore, it has betrayed me far too often >_<.
I love my TT acrylic, and if you want to watch some videos on smile lines, her videos are extremely helpful I would have to say that I personally use more than one ball to form the smile line though...a medium wet one to make a shape and then I add to it as needed! TT's powders also come in different "setting" speeds, so you can choose a faster or slower setting powder depending on how much time you want to have before it starts to cure. When I was in school I used the slower setting white powder to practice smile lines; it was super helpful.
I've also liked young nails and CND, but with the right prep most acrylic is pretty cooperative
TT and CND both carry a monomer with a built in primer for extra adhesion too!

Prep is the key to adhesion, regardless of the enhancement product/brand. I remove cuticle from the nail plate using VB Cosmetics Cuticle Remover and Mehaz cuticle pusher (023), clean with pure acetone (on sale this month at Sally's, only $9.99/gallon) and apply Entity's NuBond.

I have always wanted to try Enitity, it looks like a fantastic product. I have no idea where to get it in or around Vancouver though!

I want to give a few different products a good try so I can find out what I like. So far, Akzentz Preference is at the top for me just on the ease of getting a good mix ratio. (Something I'm not very good at.) But I have yet to try it on a person, so I have 4 models coming in this week so I can give them all a good try